A couple things that struck me yesterday during one of my rare visits to Phoenix’s interior. The neighborhood I was walking through had a mix of twee cafes, vegan restaurants, art galleries, frou-frou-coffee shops, bail bondsmen, process servers, and pawnshops. And driving along the freeway, I noticed that all of the billboards- ALL of them- were for either lawyers or air conditioning. There’s a message in there.
There is, however, no message in todays birthday, other than the stupidity of astrology, which include a guy who lived up to his name; the exemplar of the strawman; an exemplar of the honesty and selflessness of Team Blue; a guy famous for being in the background; one of the authoritarian pieces of shit bequeathed to us by Saint Ronnie Reagan; a guy who mercifully got killed before he could inundate us further with smarmy pop; a guy who bought a houses for a lot of women; my second-favorite boxer; an inadvertent Watergate celebrity; and the living symbol of Donald Trump’s antisemitism.
That’s the spoonful of sugar, here’s the medicine.
Highest Risk Occupation: Number 2 guy at Al Qaida. Second highest risk: Iranian wrestler.
My prediction for the next cult jurist.
You entitled smarmy little fuck.
Liberals fret because the government was insufficiently brutal.
Old Guy Music is a wonderful girl group who seem to have been largely forgotten. I haven’t forgotten.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/washington-one-china-policy-dead-pompeo-lifts-restrictions-us-taiwan-relations
Uncle joe is going to have to show is his colors right off the bat!
Hopefully Trump lays a shit ton of landmines* for Beijing Biden.
*Dear Zuckerborg/Adolf Twitler et al.,
That is meant in the rhetorical sense and is in no way a call for violence. Defame and deplatform me at your own peril
Signed,
Dr. President-elect Rebel Scum esquire
Just call it doing the same thing the outgoing Obama administration did to Trump with the executive orders.
That’s why Congress needs to act and impeach president Trump, to prevent such an abuse of power!
I’m sure this will diffuse tensions and allow our healing and reconciliation to begin.
Biden will have no problem reversing this because the praise for doing so from the media will be universal.
And since the media appears to be quickly trying to squelch all dissenting opinions he should have a bunch of success.
Iranian Wrestler: Interesting, it appears that the family of the murder victim there has the power to ask for and rescind the death penalty. If we’re going to have a death penalty here it should be that way although I suspect a long sentence in an Iranian prison would be worse than death.
I told my dad that if I were to be murdered, he should ask the prosecutor to not seek the death penalty. I would hate for my death to be used in a way that’s contrary to my beliefs.
I’ve got a lot more sympathy for the first wrestler, who was executed for protesting corruption. Sounds like this new guy actually killed someone.
Yeah, if the article was trying to claim he was innocent or something, I didn’t see it.
Two caveats, the regime is probably not known for the accuracy of its prosecutions any more than ours is, and that paper seems to have a strong anti-Iranian slant.
“Roller Derby Queen” is the best Jim Croce song!
Fight me!
Jim and I spent a lot of time together, vicariously, as I drove hither and yon, making my boss a richer man. I may punch old JC up on the jute box today. We traveled many miles together over the years.
Least bad Croce song maybe.
I’m pretty sure he wrote this one about me – https://youtu.be/zomwyZEYZNE
CNN was fretting yesterday about the red tape and silly bureaucratic obstacles to getting tanks onto the streets of Washington DC to crush the deplorable insurrectionistas into the dirt.
The term ‘QRF’ is used for war zones…
But of course they were. If they were gunning down people wearing MAGA hats in the streets in a matter akin to Tiananmen Square they’d be making excuses for it at the very least.
Poor dears, they don’t appreciate just how much damage an M1A1 does to concrete and asphalt.
Stimulus!
/Krug-bot
*applause*
They also fretted about having military equipment for an Independence Day parade.
When leftists say they want to cleanse the deplorables I am just going to take them at their word. But remember, it is Trump voters/supporters that are the fascists.
Sounds like Phoenix has two cultures. An upper and lower class. What is the dividing line? Race? Geographic origin?
In my college town the dividing line was “Main Street”.
Doesn’t matter, but long ago I seem to recall reading/hearing the suggestion that Liz might bypass Chuck for Weejums, if she has the authority to do so. Limey, are you around to confirm or deny?
I think it has to go through parliament.
Does any one know what regnal name Chucky is going to take?
So an AP news guy considers the capital to be his second home. What a fine Exhibit A as to what’s wrong with the media. Not that they should necessarily be adversarial all of the time but jeez, “second home” is way too cozy.
It’s the People’s Home!!
https://youtu.be/SPuI5ky0gW0
Susanne Paulus | Debts, Crime, and Prison: Daily Life in Babylonia CA. 1200 BC
Some of you might find this interesting. It’s a researcher from the Oriental Institute translating cuneiform tablets to provide details into a few individuals’ daily lives with regard to their income, lending, taxation, level of material wealth, what they used for money, and how crimes were punished. Also she doesn’t mention it but the concept of property rights is quite strong in this society.
*I mean it is taken for granted that people own livestock, units of barley, wool garments, and their homes rather than existing in some sharing-with-all dystopia. She mentions ownership of those things, just not the concept itself.
If you like that kind of stuff, here’s an excellent documentary on the Sumerians and to a lesser extend the Akkadians:
https://youtu.be/d2lJUOv0hLA
Long long long but good good good.
Thanks. Will be watching this evening.
That looks great
His whole channel is good and that’s one of the few Sumerian documentaries I’ve managed to dig up that doesn’t go into the ditch talking about ancient aliens and the Annunaki and other such nonsense.
“Smarmy little fuck” is an understatement. I tapped out. That guy must have worn the skin right off his tongue writing that asslicker of a tale.
That chick drummer rawks. Thanks, Old Man.
I concur. Looks like she only just passed away this year too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Smith
Reminded me a LOT of Gene Krupa.
Tough to be a cop/LEO today. The law means different things to different people on different days. Crimes pay for some…
Dave Smith and Michael Malice were discussing this on “Your Welcome” this week. The Right is waking up to the fact that the cops are not on their side. This might be a good thing?
President Cartoon Villain’s latest crime against humanity: not ordering flags to half mast for the “officer killed by Capitol mob”.
Maybe his desecrated carcass should be put on display in the rotunda. Shit, we could embalm him and leave him there permanently, like Lenin.
How do we know he didn’t try to tweet out an order to lower the flags?
This has become almost meaningless here in SC. The governor orders them lowered for so much it seems like they spend more time at half mast than not.
Same everywhere. I barely even trouble myself to ask why anymore.
/”I think to myself, Great! Another bureaucrat ate it!”
Ron Swanson quote FTW
The messy demise of the Republic
Capitol security officials are escalating safety measures for members of Congress at airports after multiple incidents in which lawmakers have been verbally harassed as they travel to and from Washington.
——-
The push by Capitol Police to step up security comes after the confrontation of many lawmakers in D.C. airports, including Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), whose heckling by a pro-Donald Trump crowd was captured in a now-viral video.
Graham, as a chairman and high-profile senator, has a security detail, but many lawmakers, particularly in the House, do not. Several lawmakers have privately been raising concerns that they could be not just confronted verbally, but threatened in more dramatic fashion in the coming days and weeks.
The boost in security at airports comes days after the Trump-backed siege of the Capitol terrorized lawmakers and staff and exposed deadly flaws in safety measures at the complex.
The freedom to act without consequences is an absolute necessity for the smooth and efficient operation of government.
Being held responsible by your constituents is an insufferable burden. It cannot be permitted.
The quote admonishing marxists to confront conservatives everywhere in “normal” life needs to be repeated but alas it would be ignored or waved away.
I don’t know why there are not uprisings all over the country. Perhaps there will be. – Nazi Pelosi
But no extra security when Senators were getting harassed for attending Trump’s convention speech.
“threatened in more dramatic fashion”
Someone is certainly acting in a dramatic fashion, here.
I don’t remember who said it, but it was something along the lines of, “Americans will convince themselves that they live in a free country, as long as they can badmouth politicians with relative impunity.”
When that ceases to be the case, things could get very interesting.
Especially when “badmouth” now means “death threat”.
Ironically, you were patient zero in that particular infection.
Steve Scalise could not be reached for comment.
The neighborhood I was walking through had a mix of twee cafes, vegan restaurants, art galleries, frou-frou-coffee shops,
The sorts of businesses that get profiled on local news, especially during the current climate of small businesses facing difficulties from the governments’ coronavirus shutdowns.
bail bondsmen, process servers, and pawnshops
The sorts of businesses that don’t get mentioned on local news. Them and things like independent contractors in the trades.
Get your crying towels! Crying towels here!
Christine Smith was working at her St. Paul home on Wednesday afternoon when her phone started pinging. Friends and colleagues at the Minnesota Department of Health told her of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. She pulled up Facebook to follow along.
“My first immediate reaction was a fear just like terror, and then it went to sadness,” said Smith, a 42-year-old mother of two.
Minnesotans and Americans across the country still sound shocked and saddened by the violent insurrection that engulfed the nation’s Capitol, producing almost unimaginable images, and they are somberly grappling with what comes next. The White House lurched into the weekend in turmoil amid growing calls to remove the president from office for stoking the insurgency as President-elect Joe Biden prepares for a scaled down inauguration in less than two weeks.
The new year was supposed to be restorative after a horrific 2020 in Minnesota, in the United States and around the globe: a pandemic that has killed 365,000 in the United States and upended daily life. The biggest, most sudden economic collapse since the Great Depression. A movement for racial justice unparalleled since the civil rights movement, sparked by protests and riots in the Twin Cities after the police killing of George Floyd. A bitterly divided electorate during a presidential election.
——-
Vogel voted for Joe Biden. She is originally from a small town outside Marshall, and plenty of family members are avid Trump supporters. She recalls how they spoke to her four years ago.
“How many times were we told, ‘Trump won, just get over it?’ ” she said. “When Joe Biden comes on, we’ll have somebody who’ll calm waters. He always says he’ll be a president for everybody, not just those who supported me. I find that very, very calming.”
A nation gripped by hysteria and paranoid delusions. All the work of a single supervillain.
You know what I find calming? Prog tears.
If only we could turn them into bubble bath…
She’s in for a disappointment, if she thinks the country is divided now just wait until a couple of months from now. Better get your Prozac script filled lady, might want to pick up some Valium too.
OFFS.
??♂️
“If you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black”. Can you feel the unity in that statement?
Probably signaling a move to revoke the citizenship of anybody who voted against him.
/said half in jest
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., finally telling Trump of the folly of trying to get Congress to overturn the will of voters — even though the outcome was clear before the debate started.
Ostensibly congresscritters are put there by the “will of the voters” and one of the checks/balances on government is congress’s role in the presidential election. One might infer that one role might be to recognize massive fraud and correct for it. But what do I know?
HOLY FUCKING SHIT
By the way, his bio says “Nonpartisan American, awaiting inauguration of President Biden & VP Harris.”
Creepy AF.
The scary part is that those sentiments are all too common out there.
Brennan is well known to be lower than whale shit so not surprising. He’s one of the worst people on the face of the planet.
Well, he IS a commie. Line up for your struggle sessions!
Seems like I have read about something similar, maybe, in the recent past?
Da, tovarishch.
The ChiComs are ensuring that another fix is in.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials recently seized 60 fake Steelers Super Bowl rings that had arrived from China.
“Officers say that the counterfeit rings originated from China and were to be distributed to various addresses in Allegheny County,” KDKA reports. “The packages were delivered in sets of six rings and were scheduled to arrive between Dec. 9 and Dec. 23, 2020. The fake rings were in trademark violation of the NFL’s and Steelers’ intellectual property, investigators say.”
The rings are valued at $90,000.
Well, we know what matters in this country now. NFL trademarks.
‘member when the Saints had a winning season and the NFL tried as hard as they could to steal and trademark the phrase “Who Dat?” The league sent cease and desist letters to all the touristy t-shirt shops in the French Quarter until the prior art was pointed out – “Who Dat?” has been used by Louisiana sports teams, largely high schools, for more than a century.
Violent MAGAts assault peaceful demonstrators…
An Antifa group armed with a baseball bat, bottles, and chemical sprays attacked a group of Trump supporters at a demonstration in San Diego. Antifa also threw glass bottles, rocks, and eggs at a line of police officers attempting to maintain order.
The video shows one Antifa man with a bat approaching a few Trump supporters with a bat while another dowses the couple with pepper spray. As the Trump supporters retreat, they are attacked with multiple large objects being thrown at them. Multiple fights break out.
As police arrived and attempted to separate the groups, Antifa began throwing eggs and bottles at police, Fox5 San Diego reported.
San Diego police officials eventually declared the demonstration to be an unlawful assembly, due to acts of violence.
Wait. Scratch that. Reverse it.
Speaking of the outrages perpetrated by the deplorables upon the exhalted rulers of this great land…
Clyburn, I believe it was, was howling in outrage about how appalling it was that a rabble of plebs could actually find out where is office is, and show up at his door expecting to be treated as equals, or something.
Equal to a Congressman? What preposterous nonsense.
Repent your sins. Denounce you heresies. Prostrate yourself before the High Priesthood of the State. Scourge yourself, and beg forgiveness.
The Reign of Good King Joe will begin with a one hundred day period of
prayer, fasting and penitencemask-wearing.All joking aside, I do think this is at the heart of it. I think that these magic talismans, these new versions of copper bracelets, magnets, or crosses are going to symbolize the purging of the conservatives.
But they don’t seem to realize that this is half the country.
“An 18-Year-Old Saw Her Mom, Aunt, And Uncle In DC In A Video — So She Named Them”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/teen-names-mom-trump-supporter-dc
The holidays are going to be awkward in that household.
Павла Морозова
I’m guessing the 18 year old either never read 1984, or took the wrong message from it.
I don’t know if I’d disown her but she’d be on her own from here on out if she was my kid. There’s nothing lower than snitching on your family.
Yep. I’m not close with my immediate family at all but short of murder or rape I’d never snitch on them. And before says: “Well what about…” the answer is No.
If you see something, say something.
The [Psi] Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father,
I’d absolutely disown her, evil little bitch that she is
100 years ago it was about protestantizing the spawn of the filthy catholics. Now it’s about progifying the spawn of the filthy deplorables.
Religious heresies always end up evolving and wreaking destruction.
If they view 1984 as an instruction manual, why wouldn’t they want to be a “child hero”?
This is what happens to all those kids whose parents use them as political props.
?
Stunning and brave.
My lizard brain screamed ‘batshit crazy’ after seeing those eyes. We all know what snitches get…
Fawning coverage in the media?
Job promotions?
Is she just wearing a blazer and a negligee? That’s an interesting choice for a media interview.
“I don’t feel safe being part of this family.”
Well that’s easy. You ain’t anymore.
Meow
An ex-aide of Melania Trump — and once a good friend — has penned a scathing op-ed about the first lady, accusing her of just standing by while the president destroyed America.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff wrote her piece for the Daily Beast, prompted by the rioting at the Capitol. Five people were killed, including a Trump supporter who was fatally shot and a Capitol Police officer who died of head injuries after he was bashed in the head with a fire extinguisher.
Wolkoff calls the violence “shocking, awful, disheartening and shameful.”
“It was an assault on human life and our great democracy. Unfortunately, our president and first lady have little, if any, regard for either.”
——-
Wolkoff speaks of how the president’s role in the Capitol attack doesn’t surprise her, but how the first lady’s silence does — even though she is at her best reading from a teleprompter.
The Trumps, writes Wolkoff, “lack character, and have no moral compass. Although my intentions to support the first lady in the rollout of her initiatives were always pure, I’m disheartened and ashamed to have worked with Melania.”
So insight. Much brave.
Thank you for your service.
Is that the same piece of trash that recorded the conversations with her supposed friend complaining about the WH Christmas decorations or is that another piece of trash?
The ubiquitous presence of moral cowardice is unfortunately not shocking. That op-Ed was about saving her own social life, nothing else.
This.
Although my intentions to support the first lady in the rollout of her initiatives were always pure, I’m disheartened and ashamed to have worked with Melania.
She is really evil, but that didn’t tarnish MY pureness.
I love all the people with zero morals laying it all out there for the world to see what trash they are. Perhaps the only benefit of our current culture where nobody knows how to STFU.
SOMEbody’s a little bitter that her former boss is about 3 integers hotter and married to a billionaire.
She went to work for the first lady shortly after the president’s inauguration, which she helped plan, but resigned after only a year when the Times reported the inaugural committee paid millions of dollars to the company she started.
Then, Wolkoff laid out everything on paper, writing a tell-all titled “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady.” The book came out in September. Melania lashed out, calling her ex-friend a “dishonest opportunist.”
In her op-ed, Wolkoff talks about how the first lady will leave behind “no legacy or profile to be proud.”
What a pathetic spiteful bitch.
By the way- was that Times report about how much she charged for her “faithful service and generous assistance” true, or does she deny them?
So thinking about the purges of wrongthink happening across all of the tech companies. I remember back to when the internet was going to usher in the new libertarian age, and the common thought was “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.” The real question is how much longer until the ISP’s, DNS providers, and financial services start going down the same path?
They’ve all been going down that path already but there are ways around all of that too. It’ll cause some temporary troubles for the various sites and their users but dealing with attacks keeps everyone on their toes.
Yeah, Gavin MacInnes and Laura Loomer are banned from things like Uber and PayPal that can really make modern life difficult. (I think Lauren Southern is banned either from Britain or Australia or both.)
And medical marijuana dispensaries, even in states where recreational use is legal, like Colorado, can’t find a credit card company that will do business with them. So when you walk in, you must first show ID to an angry man who is open carrying and walk through a Z-shaped chute. Only then can you talk to the dreadlocked hippies behind the counter. Because it’s a cash only business and robbery is a huge threat.
Banning wrong thinkers from credit card use would really hamper people, especially if they are business owners. And Brennan just called for everyone who won’t repudiate Trump to be eliminated. It may happen.
I think it’s not just credit cards. If I understand correctly, they have a difficult time even opening deposit accounts at banks or credit unions. Anyone else know the latest on that front?
Trump tried to reverse the damage from Operation Chokepoint, but Lizzie Warren’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gets to operate essentially independently from any oversight so they can continue to act with impunity. Fortunately they have far fewer resources than the Justice Department.
Expect DoJ to get back into the act now with the Dems back in charge. And then expect TOS to talk about how bad it all is without being able to put two and two together.
Dark times ahead…
I wonder if TOS will rediscover its purpose in a couple weeks.
“(I think Lauren Southern is banned either from Britain or Australia or both.)”
Britain. She married an Australian and lives there.
What was the Obama administration strategy to put pressure on porn, gun and other disfavored companies by pressuring the banks? That will return and be turned up to 11.
Cuomo got the credit card companies to ban online sale of cigarettes to his subjects a decade ago. This tactic is already well-established.
Keep in mind also that the internet is also filled with legions of angry, anti-establishment autists with exceptional hacking abilities (think Anonymous). A lot of those kids don’t really have a political ideology beyond “stir shit up” so authoritarian corps banning people willy-nilly would become prime targets for relentless cyber attacks.
I remember back to when the internet was going to usher in the new libertarian age
Right up ’til they discovered they needed government assistance to lock the gate behind them in order to protect their market share and income.
Good morning, Old Man!
Thanks for the lynx and the hot musical chicks. What a drummer!
I gotta admit, this shit is starting to weigh on me. I need a non-chemical strategy to give fewer fucks.
Unplug from media today.
Take a break in the immediate world around you sometimes instead of thinking about the gathering shitstorm.
The stuff in your immediate surroundings that you can touch and observe for yourself is true and can’t be spun.
Yes, good plan!
It’s the censorship that worries me the most.
I said for a couple of years that social media censorship is the reason why Trump could lose the election.
Me, I think I’ll go for a nice relaxing stroll, headphones on blasting Old Guy Music of various sorts, and stopping every so often to unzip and restore my coffee to the land whence it came.
Yep, I’m gonna head out to the woods.
Y’all have a great day!
Already did that, although sub-freezing temperatures are more invigorating than relaxing.
Meh. I’m okay with the chemicals.
Better living and all that.
Work on your garden.
make sure that you have pics of everything that needs replacing. (insurance)
Clean your guns, sharpen your knives, organize your tools.
Read a book.
“organize your tools”
You make me laugh. Go to gulag.
I think I may drive out to Shenandoah one weekend soon. Me, myself, and I. Have a little lunch at Little Stony Man. Look out over the valley. Too bad I have to drive an hour one way to do that.
Stony Man is a favorite spot. A few years ago I took my camp there, and when we were finishing the loop I saw some of those stone cairns that hikers stack up some time. As soon as I saw them, I acted scared and told the kids “Lets go we need to move quick and finish up.”Back at the campsite, after dinner, I spun a lurid tale of a starving winter and a tribe that turned to cannibalism, and how their ghosts haunt the mountainside and stack up cairns as a warning to intruders not to linger long. Had the kids all wide eyed. One of the kids who hadn’t gone on the hike scoffed and said “That’s all made up.” and then all my kids who were on the hike said “No hes telling the truth we saw the rocks stacked up and he made us finish the hike really fast and he kept looking around the woods the whole time!!” I let them be scared for a while then I spilled the beans about how hikers just make rock stacks for fun. My scout master did the same to my troop when I was a kid, expect it was a cursed shaman who turned into a bear to eat intruders in his valley.
The movie “Cromwell” is on over there in the background. The King just fired Parliament.
THAT’S how an executive stages a coup, not tweeting about his hurt feelings.
Idk who this is but I expect to see more of this behavior. Wrongthinkers must not be allowed to participate in society.
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2021/01/09/pro-trump-rocker-ariel-pinks-label-drops-him-following-rally-attendance/
“Idk who this is”
Streisand effect already in progress.
Further: in another time (and perhaps today, who knows?) this is a badge of honor. Rock (esp. punk, but I don’t know if he is) is supposed to be about fighting the Man and rebellion. When the Man fights back it shows you’re having an effect.
Depends on who The Man is. I think we are witnessing a complete reversal of the effect you’re describing.
Supposed to be, but that quickly gets suppressed.
Music Critics turned spoof Punk Rock band turned REAL Punk Rock band The Angry Samoans got banned from all of the big LA Clubs for making fun of LA Disc Jockey Rodney Bingenheimer in a song (“8pm Rodney’s on the air, he’s beating off in Joan Jett’s hair”). See, you’re not supposed to pick the wrong targets.
But again, isn’t that the whole point of punk? The more people you’re pissing off, the better job you’re doing.
That’s what the Samoans thought and they were true masters of the artform. For them making fun of Reagan or Christians or Republicans would yield nothing but polite applause from their punk peers. Going after the guy who plays punk songs on the radio, or punk trainwrecks like Darby Crash (who needed a mental health professional to save his life) was “uncool.”
Most of the more _famous_ local punk bands like Descendents were very unhappy with them for going after the “wrong” people. So ironically you now had “Establishment Punk.”
Kind of like when Guttermouth got pushed out of the Warped Tour in like 2005 for praising W on stage and selling shirts with his picture. It was all a joke – they didn’t give two shits about Bush. Just did it to mock the atmosphere on that tour where it was obligatory to issue a perfunctory condemnation of Bush during each performance.
If respect for the democratic process is essential for musicians then where does that leave all those pop stars who slobbered over Fidel Castro? Cancel RATM and the Manics!
thicc?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9130429/Demi-Rose-puts-busty-display-racy-strapless-leopard-print-swimsuit.html
Nope. Svelte waist
I need a non-chemical strategy to give fewer fucks.
Unfortunately, it’s not exactly Spitfire weather.
Yeah, that would do it!
Speaking of…
I don’t think I’m feeling fit and feisty enough to subject myself to Meet the Press, today.
I already know exactly what they’re going to say, anyway.
Dude, that shit will rot your brain. Stay away.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/us/politics/trump-pelosi-nuclear-military.html
Do they know how insane they look? The guy is going to be out of office shortly. We get it, you don’t like him.
They got away with their election coup. One would think they would just shut up for a couple weeks. I don’t get this move (which is actual sedition) and the desire to impeach, unless they know Trump has damning information on them. But then what do they think will happen? File impeachment and he releases the proverbial Kraken.
It didn’t happen last time and I see no reason why it would happen this time.
Nothing to lose?
“it would be unconstitutional to defy legal orders from the commander in chief, experts note.”
“Experts” note? Really? I didn’t know watching Schoolhouse Rock in 5th grade made me an expert.
I think expert is another word we can add to the list of words that no longer mean anything.
“Mike Pence has not ruled out using the 25th Amendment to remove Donald Trump from office in the wake of Wednesday’s riot on the US Capitol that left five dead, CNN reports.
Senator Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Pence Thursday to declare Trump unfit for office after he riled up crowds telling them to ‘fight’ moments before a mob stormed the Capitol.
The Vice President refused to take their calls and he has not spoken publicly since Wednesday’s events, leading the Democrats to begin an impeachment process as an alternative option to remove Trump from office.
Despite Pence’s silence, the Vice President is keeping the move to invoke the 25th Amendment very much on the table for if or when Trump becomes more unstable in the days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, a source told CNN.
The latest twist in this week’s events comes as it was revealed Pence sheltered in a bunker with his family during the Capitol riot and Trump didn’t check in on his safety.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9130851/Mike-Pence-NOT-ruled-using-25th-Amendment.html
A source told CNN?
Yeah, a source, you know, a guy who talked to a guy who used to work with a guy who drove the VP’s uncle to the airport one time.
AKA “the voices in my head”.
By this logic, they could also report that Mike Pence has not ruled out calling Pelosi a mendacious cunte who is trying to stage a coup and is thus unfit for office.
I haven’t ruled out shaving my entire body, covering myself with a layer of maple syrup and Cheerios, downing a whole bottle of Ex-Lax then proceeding to sprint naked through downtown singing “I’m a Little Teapot” while spraying a stream of projectile diarrhea behind me. It’s very, very unlikely, but I haven’t ruled it out.
That sounds oddly specific.
Everyone should have a dream.
Slutty Sunday bringing da big bouncy pleasure pillows for a snowy morning!
https://archive.li/kGfoM
“Nancy Pelosi accuses MAGA mob that stormed US Capitol of ‘choosing their whiteness over democracy’ as she vows to hold Trump accountable for ‘instigating’ the riot”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9131437/Nancy-Pelosi-accuses-MAGA-mob-stormed-Capitol-choosing-whiteness-democracy.html
I’m surprise that the left doesn’t find all this race nonsense tiring at this point.
Fanning the flames of truth, reconciliation and healing.
Don’t forget “antisemitism”.
(Getting to antisemitism from what happened requires incredibly quantities of stupidity and mendacity. Fortunately Pelosi has more than enough of both.)
They feed on it. We’re only a couple of steps away from people slashing their scalps open with sabers or self-flagellating as a show of faith.
“people slashing their scalps open with sabers or self-flagellating as a show of faith”
Now that I’d pay to see.
They will, eventually, and that will be the end of them.
SCIENCE wreaks its terrible vengeance on the unbelievers
California health authorities reported Saturday a record one-day total of 695 coronavirus deaths as many hospitals strain under unprecedented caseloads.
California’s death toll since the start of the pandemic rose to 29,233, according to the state Department of Public Health’s website.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations are nearly 22,000, and state models project the number could reach 30,000 by Feb 1.
A surge of cases following Halloween and Thanksgiving produced record hospitalizations in California, and now the most seriously ill of those patients are dying in unprecedented numbers.
——-
“We’ve never seen this much death before,” Avila told the newspaper. “I’ve been in health care for 22 years, and I’ve never been scared. Right now, I am … I fear for my children.”
The biggest fear is that hospitals will be tipped into rationing care in a few weeks when people who ignored social distancing rules to gather with friends and relatives for Christmas and New Year’s Eve start showing up for medical care.
Maybe I just imagined this, but didn’t the CDC & Co spend most of the spring and summer “debunking” and discouraging research and development of treatment strategies in favor of lockdowns and placebos while they went all in on vaccines?
Meanwhile numbers are plummeting here in the Midwest. We were told we did it all wrong and everyone was going to die because of it.
Blah blah blah. These outlets lie so routinely that I’m inclined to think that the entire article (stats, interviews, names) is made up. I mean c’mon:
“I’ve been in health care for 22 years, and I’ve never been scared. Right now, I am … I fear for my children.”
That sounds like slop written by a failed screenwriter. Even if it is true, fuck your Panic Porn and your not-so-veiled threats about how gathering with other people for special occasions is the provenance of wrong doers and hate criminals.
Isn’t CA a CoN state, and thus has about a third of the hospitals per capita than Kansas does?
Gov’t health care, good and hard.
“I fear for my children”
What in the ever loving fuck for?
“I might be too stupid to raise them.”
I fear somewhat for my conservative son, who is going to go back to school in a month and be surrounded by fire-breathing SJWs at an arts school. I give it 50/50 odds that there’s going to be an incident because the lunatics are feeling their power right now.
Meh, I fear for mine too. Un/fortunately, they don’t remember a time when there was a lot more freedom and things were cheaper, so squeezing freedoms away might be normal for them.
And they never experienced the post-racial 90s. They were born after 9/11. So they have never lived in a world when race (and now sexual preferences on display and gender identity) wasn’t the overriding narrative of every day, when you weren’t strip searched at airports. They won’t even notice that their freedoms are gone because they never had them in the first place.
Yep
Fortunately, XX wants nothing to do with college. She’s all about trade school. Don’t know about XY yet, but he’s bought into some weird amalgam of SJW nonsense from social media that all contradicts. We are hoping he goes into a hard trade and I can only hope the necessity of earning a living will beat that out of him.
XX rolls her eyes at all of it and Walmart has done her a world of good.
“They won’t even notice that their freedoms are gone because they never had them in the first place”
Isn’t that the point?
Well … yes.
They won’t even notice that their freedoms are gone because they never had them in the first place.
This is the story of the 20th and 21st centuries in the US. Yes, the reduction in maximal freedom was offset in many ways by the more universal application of the residual freedom, but every successive generation was used to less and less freedom. I don’t think it’s unique to the current generation of kids. I think it is coming to a head, though.
“The neighborhood I was walking through had a mix of twee cafes, vegan restaurants, art galleries, frou-frou-coffee shops, bail bondsmen, process servers, and pawnshops.”
Were you in Melrose? That’s what it sounds like. I do wonder what it would be like to have lived in pre-2020 Phoenix while young and single as opposed to old/middle-aged and single.
Anyway, the ‘rona has devastated the urban bohemian growth that was taking place in the areas around downtown. Just annihilated it all. First Friday has been destroyed, Melrose has gone back to just being a low income neighborhood, downtown is a ghost town. I’m such a cosmotarian by disposition, but man we’re just speed bumps for the left and Democrats. At least the Mises folks will actually oppose what’s being done to us.
All I know is that when I visited friends at ASU, Mill Ave. was like the world’s greatest buffet of T&A I’d ever seen before or since. I’m pretty sure it’s probably what Muslim heaven looks like (except the ladies are emphatically not virgins).
I left so much of my life essence there that I think my lifespan is 15 years shorter. Worth it.
When lockdown number one ended, Twitter went batshit when video from Mill Avenue was posted with young folks crowding into bars enjoying themselves. Pearls were clutched, and an orgy of death to follow was breathlessly assured.
I was over near the Heard. The neighborhood theme is “Ugly Amateurish Murals.” One of them was Spud’s featured image in the evening links yesterday.
*checks*
I really don’t like postmodern art.
I think it’s not just credit cards. If I understand correctly, they have a difficult time even opening deposit accounts at banks or credit unions. Anyone else know the latest on that front?
Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level. A federally chartered financial institution can lose its charter and be subject to criminal prosecution for “laundering” drug money.
Don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that would also be the case for state-chartered but federally-insured (FDIC/NCUSIF.)
“The flags flown by the Capitol invaders revealed: One represented a mythical country ruled by frog-headed deity, another shows the Kraken in support of Sidney Powell and many more backed armed militia”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9129945/The-far-right-symbols-groups-Capitol-Hill-riots.html
This shit is hilarious
“Pictured, a Trump supporter holding a Betsey Ross flag is detained by a police officer at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. The flag is not strictly an extremist symbol but has been used by groups as a signal of an idea of more traditional America, which they believe is whiter and male”
A woman carrying a Betsey Ross flag signals “male”.
I thought the traditional idea was freedom and constitutionally limited government.
“Viking and Norse symbology do not have racist origins, but they have been misused by white supremist at times. Pictured, a Trump supporter shows of his Nordic tattoos”
What?
“more traditional America, which they believe is whiter and male”
How tedious. I don’t remember who on here said that journos are people who weren’t smart enough to be Elementary Ed majors but I think that’s right on the nose. Print journos are the ugly ones and TV journos are the marginally more attractive one willing to fuck their way to the top.
Except it is YOU racist cuntes trying to foment racial discord.
https://dailycaller.com/2021/01/09/hank-johnson-trump-supporter-shot-swinging-from-railings-us-capitol/
Utterly full of shit
Particularly when Trump supporters have been getting stabbed in the streets of DC for a while now and they’ve said nothing other than to excuse it as “people are upset”
This is the guy who was worried about Guam tipping over, right?
Yes. He is titanically stupid in addition to being a racist asshole.
Yes, killing that unarmed woman prevented a race war…
I can’t roll my eyes hard enough. They simply are too stupid to see the big picture.
From now on, any time I see Nancy Pelosi speak, I will reflexively mentally append “And your little dog, too!”
Don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that would also be the case for state-chartered but federally-insured (FDIC/NCUSIF.)
I think it’s every body. And there’s the Fed to consider. “No clearing services for you.”
https://twitter.com/jack/status/1348139031599595522
CWAA
I don’t get it.
He’s proud that he took down Parler, which was #1.
Thank god we have anti-trust laws which quickly put a stop to all of this anti-competitive monopolistic behavior.
If we only had laws against voter fraud none of this would’ve happened!
Hey guys, I’ve found a Lefty loophole!
I believe in love and tolerance for all humans.
We just need to finally acknowledge that Trumptards, conservatives, libertarians, neoliberals, science/gender/climate/po-mo deniers and assorted others aren’t really human!
Why didn’t anyone think of this before?
They used to have South American natives in Zoos on display.
I can’t wait ’til Ballgag Joe makes his
inaugurationcoronation address.“The Constitution is an insufferable impediment to effective progressive governance, and i will spend my first one hundred days in office working diligently for its repeal.”
A plagiarist to the last.
#thingsWoodyWilsonSaid
Oath of office, Biden style.
I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the previous holder of the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend, you know, the thing.
Hey, Rhywun, I’m happy for your Bills!
Whom do I want to win today? I can’t decide!
Whatever happens, I’mma put it on the Chiefs v Packers.
Did King Kuomo end up going to the Bills game, I wonder? I missed the early game yesterday
I heard he backed out. As a former western NYer, I can easily imagine that he is not well-liked anywhere outside the class of leeches and elites that would be concentrated in central Buffalo.
? I thought it could have been a little more one-sided but I’ll take it.
That no fumble call was wrong.
Whom do I want to win today?
Titans.
I member….
So I’ve talked to three separate people who were in DC. One was a Trump supporter, two more were there to help old people not get stabbed (not Proud Boy members, just ex-military)
The common refrain was “There was no organized effort to invade the Capitol building, everything was good-natured and most people had no clue what was going on, even the Capitol Police.”
That jives with the few pieces of video footage that shows fairly relaxed police officers interacting with the crowd without apparent tension.
When you put pictures of the rage of the last 8 months of “peaceful protests” next to the “insurrection” pictures, it tells you a lot about the media and it’s clear narrative.
That’s one reason Facebook banned the videos.
NPR is especially annoying this morning. They are giddy talking about all those icky people who questioned the election results which led to a violent insurrection.
Then they will be overjoyed when the inevitable reactionary wave occurs.
Do they still rerun old Car Talks? I used to love trying to tune into the local NPR when I was on road trips. Weekend mornings were good for those documentary-style in-depth stories.
NPR does still manage and offer Car Talk episodes even though Tom died in 2014. Of course, the program line-up at any given station is entirely up to them and what they wish to pay for.
Is there some person who has characterized the rule that we all recognize mistakes in the reporting of the things we understand while speculating about the competence and accuracy of the rest of the content? I’ve often heard bad takes on mobile HVAC on Car Talk, but, to their credit, I did hear them acknowledge one such error: they were capable of learning and recognized when their speculation had been unhelpful.
Micheal Crichton coined this term.
Because mobile HVAC is not their religion. If mobile HVAC was something that was a core part of the Dem platform, they’d lie like dogs about it.
The main problem with the term is that you don’t need to be the equivalent of Murray Gell-Mann in any field to know more than journalists. It’s a very astute observation apart from that.
thanks
I was down in the weeds: the guys on the show did give HVAC advice and did perform those repairs and were paid to know the thing they were talking about. I don’t think their failing in that area derived from any adherence to some national content policy or bent. I’m probably the only guy who cares about this area who would notice.
This cunte is still talking?
Michael Cohen
@MichaelCohen212
I have been asked and have agreed to cooperate with multiple government agencies to provide testimony on the wrongdoing by #Trump and the #TrumpFamily. I am doing this in large part as #Trump and family have tried, and thankfully failed, to destroy America’s democracy.
Tried to destroy what? Anyway, we know Cohen is a reliable witness. Also, was he ever seen on Epstein’s Pedophile Island?
Citation needed.
He doesn’t rule it out.
Is this true?
Alan Dershowitz: “The case cannot come to trial in the Senate. Because the Senate has rules and the rules would not allow the case to come to trial until, according to the majority leader, until 1 PM on January 20th an hour after President Trump leaves office. And the Constitution specifically says, “The President shall be removed from office upon impeachment.” It doesn’t say the former president. Congress has no power to impeach or try a private citizen, whether it be a private citizen named Donald Trump or named Barack Obama or anyone else.”
I was under the impression they could ram it through if they wanted.
We have officially lost our minds.
Democrats have been so invested in their plan to impeach Trump that every talking head show this morning is talking about the existential threat to democracy that Trump poses.
Not a single voice of dissent. Are you kidding me? These people have lost their minds.
Worse, they are talking about his terrible rhetoric… As they say things like terrorist, sedition, existential threat to the republic…..
Is there not a single rational mind left in America?
Good lord…
*checks Facebook*
Nope
For real, most of my normie friends, even that lean right, see the ‘assault’ on the capitol as objectively worse than the BLM riots.
Trump’s actual actions and words haven’t mattered since mid-2016. He will be whatever they need him to be to fill the hole in their souls.
Okay, I give up
House Majority Whip James Clyburn on Sunday said House Democrats might wait until after President-elect Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office to send any articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate, a move that would give the incoming President time to tackle his agenda in Congress before the start of a time-consuming trial.
I wasn’t aware Congress was empowered to impeach a Former President.
My education was woefully inadequate.
They’re terrified of him in 2024. I guess their election rigging wasn’t as rock solid as they hoped.
I think it’s the wrong move. If Trump sets up a New Reform Party thing, the Dems are assured of winning the Presidency again in 2024.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell previously made clear in a memo that even if the House moved in the coming days to impeach Trump, the Senate would not return to session before January 19. That would place the start of the trial on January 20 — the date of Biden’s inauguration.
I guess Alan “You have no right to bodily autonomy” Derpshowitz (see above) is correct.
I wasn’t aware Congress was empowered to impeach a Former President.
Clyburn is more ignorant than normal these days.
What crimes are they alleging? Trump didn’t storm anything.
I don’t think they can impeach a former president. If they try, his popularity will go up.
It does prove that the Dems foolishly believe that Trump is the cause of the populist resistance to proggieville rather than as an indicator that the populace is resistant to their hard left agenda.
If they try
I don’t see a legal foundation and it makes zero sense. You can’t impeach someone who is not the president.
So what you’re saying is, it’s a lock. And the Senate will vote to remove him this time, too.
It is super important to them that he be humiliated. He defeated herself. And that was a heinous crime.
During the night of the election, 2016, when Clinton refused to come out and speak… Her inner circle met at the hotel. The first thing the next morning they had microphones stuck in their face as they left the building.
“Don’t worry, we are going to impeach him”.
I am convinced that they laid out the Russia hoax and the plan to use it to derail Trump.
All of the left has been invested in this plot ever since. It has become the end in an of itself, not a means to an end.
“I am convinced that they laid out the Russia hoax and the plan to use it to derail Trump.”
It’s all in the book Shattered, written by two liberal reporters. It’s right there in black and white. The Obama admin used the national security state to spy on Trumps campaign for political advantage, and when he pulled off the win they needed something to cover up what they had done.
But a guy with a buffalo hat is an existential threat to the country.
If I remember right, some of John Brennan’s own personal notes (recently declassified) mention him briefing Obama about how Hillary is going to push a story about Russian collusion to distract from her email server controversy.
They were thinking of ways to get rid of him before he even sat down in office.
This is exactly what they think. On the 6th I was getting overwrought texts from friends about the “insurrection”. I’ve never signed up on Facebook, so that’s the only way I can be reached besides email. Two of them were calling for T Dog to be arrested and tried, with one of them wanting him hung. They really can’t grasp that Trump is a symptom, not the disease and they can’t understand that there is at least half of America that is not down with the progification of everything. Biden to them represents some glorious middle ground where acceptable opinion resides. If Bad Orange Man is repudiated hard enough these wrongthinkers would just get in line like they are supposed to.
Exactly so. Trump only succeeded because he was the only one who refused to play their games of gotcha.
Sadly, nobody else has learned from him.
You do not cede a millimeter to these people.
Biden to them represents some glorious middle ground where acceptable opinion resides.
Yes, he fits their caricature of what the other side must really want (white, old, “moderate”, etc.). They don’t understand and they probably never will, until the shoe is on the other foot, that you can’t speak for someone else.
Yep they believe their own bullshit propaganda that the only reason Republicans didn’t like Obama was he was black. That Republicans would have been thrilled with higher taxes, socialized medicine, gun control, carbon taxes, Iran Deal, etc etc if only a white man was in power.
That’s why I don’t see a peaceful solution here. They simply cannot conceive that you can be a tolerant, kind, decent, and honest human being who advocates a low tax, limited government, night watchman type state. They honestly truly believe that the Deplorables just want an old white man in charge, and will swallow whatever is shoveled as long as the hands on the shovel are old, white, male.
“Yes of course we raised taxes and gave all of our supporters student loan relief and took your guns away and made gas 10 dollars a gallon. But we compromised with you by doing it with an old white guy as the figurehead.
To be fair, I think no small number of the deplorables would be happy with more socialism, as long as it benefited them. For them, limiting government is a tactical choice not an ideological one. They’re upset that welfare dollars flow into the inner cities more than the Rust Belt; that the shining new technocratic economy of tomorrow (TM) has no direct place for them, their children, or their skills; and, of course, that the priests and deacons of the Cathedral hate them and want them to suffer (cf. “learn to code” vs. “black lives matter”).
The establishment is too stupid and too shallow to recognize that their full-throated embrace of leftist minorities is not why the deplorables resent them, it is because they abandoned the white working class in favor of the white professional class. This is the cranky uncles vs. the spoiled nieces and nephews, and questions of ideology are ancillary.
You especially can’t speak for somebody else when you only know a caricature of them.
Wet streets make rain.
Yes, they have so insulated themselves from cause and effect in politics, have removed any and all dissenting voices, that they are blind to the country and its people.
Woke up, hungover as fuck, to a text from my boss asking me to publish a web page. On a Sunday. Did I mention the hangover?
NPR is especially annoying this morning. They are giddy talking about all those icky people who questioned the election results which led to a violent insurrection.
And so the lefties at NPR gladly take up the noble struggle of counterrevolution. Those who deny the absolute authority of the State must be ruthlessly rooted out and punished!
What is the total number of people who attended the protest at the Capitol?
Simultaneously almost none and dangerously huge numbers, depending on what point is being made.
Double-think is fun.
None? It was all untermenschen? You know, subhuman *spit* white supremacist homophobe bigots.
“Part of the story of the private sector response to the insurrection is the reality that the political branches failed to contain Trump and law enforcement failed to contain the assault. American citizens are using the power they have to protect this country against an attack.”
https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1348119081996705792
CWAA
*glances at URL*
Well, yeah.
The people who actually invaded the Capitol are being identified and prosecuted. If they really want to try and prosecute anyone else for incitement then they can. The American people already have a process to protect their country against an attack – the law.
What this big tech stuff is about is trying to punish people without going through the difficult process of actually convicting anyone, or demonstrating any causation between speech and act. Same thing they’ve done with rape and “hate speech”.
Historically there were plenty of left-wingers and liberals who fought for the rights of the accused. Now (with some exceptions like Greenwald) they’re happy to cheer on this capricious, uneven, unscrutinised mess.
Shut up, clinger. And report for re-education.
I think leftists crossed the Rubicon a while ago; political affiliation stopped being a matter of policy preference and became a religion somewhere during the Obama Administration and became a fundamentalist religion under Orangemanbad. And now it’s time to burn some heretics.
“The people who actually invaded the Capitol are being identified and prosecuted”
For the first time ever. Leftwing groups have had “invading and occupying the capitol” as a standard tactic for decades, and I can’t see that any of them were ever indicted for it. Shit Jimmy Carter pardoned people who actually shot Congressmen, and who actually bombed the Capitol.
Once again: the problem is the double standard where the activist left is allowed to do whatever it wants, while the activist right is punished for doing the same thing or even for doing far far far less. Remember, two lawyers threw a Molotov at a cop car and got probation. If two right wingers did that, they’d be thrown deep down in the hole forever. Their felony level violence is just rambunctious speech, but your rambunctious vandalism is armed insurrection against the State.
It should not be a felony charge to put your feet up on Pelosis desk, or move her lectern from one place in the building to another place in the building. Any property damage proven to have been committed by an individual can be dealt with via fines.
You must not have been watching the news. I watched the news. They told me and no uncertain terms that this is never happened before. only these white supremacists dared to invade the capital.
CNN told me so. So did NBC. And MSNBC! ABC news have entire segments about it. It is unprecedented. No group has ever dared to anything like this.
So say us all….
Look at this guy, he thinks Trump’s his wife.
My god, the desperation is palpable.
David French is a worthless and dishonest piece of shit who wraps himself in self righteousness and false holiness, and people who still take him seriously are morons.
American citizens are using the power they have to protect this country against an attack.
If that’s the case, don’t take their guns away.
Serious question:
Apple and Google and Amazon, along with Twitter and Facebook have all weighed in hard in American politics. They have decided that Republican and conservative opinions will not be allowed on their platforms. They will support progressive causes with their platform.
Exactly how does this avoid being an in-kind campaign contribution?
Because the people who enforce the laws are partisans. Clinton and Biden got over 90% of the vote in DC, and I am willing to bet that ratio is even higher when it comes to policy making and high ranking officials. The Democrats always control the civil service, and sometimes they also control the Congress and Presidency. They always control the courts, because they own the academy and especially the elite law schools from which judges come.
The theory behind the professional civil service was that it would be nonpartisan. Just like the theory of turning over the airwaves to nonpartisan news services.
It’s a fair question but to my mind beside the point.
My view is that unconstitutional laws shouldn’t be used to further libertarianism. This points to the failing of large government. Crafting laws that manage (install and protect) corporations leads to graft and less freedom.
I continue to be disinterested in the day-to-day parry-and-thrust of who’s-in-charge as a way to perfecting our republic. I think the only hope lies in minimizing central control, in restoring federalism.
^^^^
This. A whole lot of this.
There is no savior coming to fix our system. Embrace the decline. Rise above the day to day clatter. Turn off the shrill harpies and prognosticators of doom and enjoy life while you still can.
Is that with a mask or without? And if I’d enjoy going to a bar or a concert or sporting event, now what?
I was doing this: ignoring politics because it made my life worse. Now they’ve made it impossible for me to do so.
Yes, it’s impossible to ignore. However, there is nothing you can do except stress yourself out by plugging into it. TMITE isn’t changing their tune because you see through their BS. Zombified idiots aren’t going to learn critical thinking because you shatter one or two of their delusions.
There’s no good answer, but the least bad answer is living a good life despite these ghouls.
I guess the question is: how does one distinguish between censorship by a private party (which is constitutional) and censorship by government (which obviously isn’t), when said private party and said government officials work so closely hand in hand with one another at all times. When said private parties have had special carveouts in the law passed for them. When people travel freely between said private party’s board rooms and political campaigns and offices?
And, of course, when a culture that generally regards ‘free speech’ as a good valuable staple of a free society suddenly no longer does so, does it now even matter at all what the constitution says? It’s just a piece of paper, and if the culture doesn’t like what the piece of paper says, it will simply invent ways to ignore it. As we’ve seen.
The answer is to not be overly formulaic in our application of principles.
In a fascist system like ours, private companies aren’t actually private. They’re controlled, at some level, by the state. The folly I see all too often is the same exact folly of the left. Relying on the state to fix a problem created by the state.
Yeah I’d say for me one of the things that has really changed in my political views is I have become a lot more receptive to left-libertarian viewpoints on the corporation. The corporation is a chartered entity, endowed by the State with certain special rights and privileges. It collects taxes and enforces State policy in the workplace. When it works hand in glove with the State, especially when it comes to speech rights, its not MUH FREE MARKET anymore. Especially when I can go on social media and see dozens of left wing accounts calling for explicit violence who are allowed to keep operating.
Even in legacy media you have a magazine like Jacobin that is considered a respectable publication. Imagine if someone started a magazine and named it Alter Kämpfer or something like that. Would it be approvingly cited by “moderate” voices?
I’m rather skeptical of public corporations as a whole, and especially public corporations substantially owned by government associated entities (public pensions, etc.).
?
Better question: does it matter?
If you take away the distinction, it will still be leftists deciding whether it’s acceptable censorship or not.
“I think the only hope lies in minimizing central control, in restoring federalism.”
That’s gonna be tough when you can’t advocate for it in the public square.
Make your own Internet racist hater.
This is denigrated as an unrealistic or infeasible solution but it remains on the table and may be the best strategy there is. The reason the left-wing establishment has succeeded thus far is that they always balanced the stick with a carrot. Sure, we’ll shut down your mine/logging operation/factory/etc. and put you all out of jobs, but we’ll keep your pensions funded, your children educated and ready to do new jobs, and the economy as a whole moving along by offshoring the factors of production. They have decided lately the carrot is not needed anymore and they just need bigger and bigger sticks. The pioneers who founded this country started with next to nothing and initially faced a great deal of hostility. Were they better men or just tougher?
They basically want to tell half the country that their votes won’t matter, their opinions can’t be heard, and they’ll destroy their livelihoods.
What could possibly go wrong??
votes won’t matter
To some extent, that always happens; every election has a loser: American history records 50 or so, few of whom I would imagine were thrilled with the outcome. I’m not gunning for anyone, but the idea that 70M feel like their voices weren’t heard is the normal, predictable outcome.
I would never let such thoughts interfere with my commitment to property rights.
you lost me: can I not hand out pamphlets if I wish?
are you starting the facebook-as-utility angle?
A sliver of the right will be allowed to continue participating. The Davids French, Peggies Noonan, Mitches McConnell, etc. will not be deplatformed (yet). National Review will stick around, and will as with KDW keep their proper place staking out the right side of the constantly leftward shifting Overton window. This will be called bipartisan and fair, and it will probably be facially neutral enough to pass muster. The goal is to have a controlled opposition, at least as far as anyone who matters can see.
Exactly how does this avoid being an in-kind campaign contribution?
You slay me.